GE to Invest up to $40 Million in eSolar

August 08, 2011 01:55 PM Eastern Daylight Time

BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--eSolar, a leading developer of modular, scalable concentrating solar
thermal power technology, announced today that in addition to its
licensing agreement with GE Energy, GE (NYSE: GE) has closed a strategic
investment in the company. As part of the deal Paul Browning, president
and CEO of Thermal Products, for GE Energy, will join the eSolar board
of directors.

“Our partnership with GE moves our innovative technology to the next
stage. Together, we are able to bring to market a power plant solution
that drives down the cost of solar and meets the growing demand for
renewable energy generation,” said John Van Scoter, President and CEO of
eSolar. “Building on our proven technology, this investment will fund
the development of next-generation, modular solutions that enhance the
cost competitiveness of solar, such as molten salt storage technology.
We welcome Mr. Browning to our board as a valuable asset in driving the
strategic direction of the company during this time of rapid growth.”

“Adding eSolar’s high temperature tower technology to our combined cycle
product offering allows us to offer an integrated solution with
unparalleled efficiency, full dispatchability, and a market competitive
cost of electricity,” said Browning. “It allows us to offer a power
plant that creates more value for customers.”

He added, “Intermittent renewable energy has always worked in tandem
with flexible natural gas through grid integration. As renewable uptake
increases around the world, we recognize the need for combined cycle gas
turbine technology that delivers both flexibility and world class
efficiency. We believe that this combination of flexible and efficient
gas with renewables can help meet near and long term global targets for
climate change, cost and reliability. It is the future of power
generation.”

An ISCC power plant features a combined-cycle system including a gas
turbine, steam turbine, generators and a heat recovery steam generator,
as well as a field of mirrors that focus sunlight on a tower to produce
high temperature steam. During the day, steam generated in the solar
field is fed into the water-steam system of the combined-cycle plant,
creating extra megawatts of electricity without using any additional
natural gas. During the night or during periods of cloud cover, the
power plant remains fully dispatchable using natural gas. Solar thermal
energy becomes much less expensive when integrated with a combined cycle
power plant because the steam turbine, generator and other expensive
components are already available and can be used for the solar thermal
integration.

Through a licensing agreement, GE was granted exclusive worldwide rights
to eSolar’s modular technology for ISCC, excluding China and India.
Together the two companies are targeting Europe, Africa, the Middle East
and the United States, and are working on a 530 MW project in Turkey
with Turkish investor and power project developer MetCap Energy, which
will feature 50 MW of eSolar concentrated solar thermal tower technology
integrated with GE’s new FlexEfficiency 50 Combined Cycle Power Plant.
eSolar is working to evaluate additional projects which the company
expects to announce in the near future.

“Worldwide, demand for renewable solar technology is surging, and
technologies like ISCC power plants are essential to bridging the gap
between natural gas and renewable energy,” said Bandel Carano, managing
partner of Oak Investment Partners. “Combining eSolar’s cost-effective
and scalable solar technology with GE’s expertise in power generation
will deliver an innovative solution that will lower the cost of solar
and bring more renewable energy projects online.”

eSolar’s proven power plant technology uses small, flat, pre-fabricated
mirrors called heliostats to track the sun and reflect its heat to a
tower-mounted receiver. This generates steam that is used by the ISCC
plant’s power block to create electricity. Thousands of heliostats are
aligned and controlled using advanced software algorithms to precisely
focus the sun’s energy. eSolar’s technology is architected to provide
modular, prefabricated fields that maximize energy production, are
scalable to meet a wide range of customers’ power generation needs,
while also enabling rapid, lower cost deployment.

About eSolar

eSolar was founded in 2007 to develop modular and scalable solar thermal
power plant technology. The eSolar solution marries a low-impact,
pre-fabricated form factor with advanced computer software engineering
to meet the demand for reliable and cost-competitive solar energy.
eSolar is based in Burbank, Calif. For more information, please visit www.esolar.com.